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Former GOP Lawmaker Gives Abby Phillip Reality Check As She Brushes Off Far-Left Violence

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Former Republican New York City Council minority leader Joe Borelli gave CNN host Abby Phillip a reality check on Monday as she attempted to deny that political violence is largely a far-left issue.

Phillip attempted to spin President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s comments about the threat of far-left violence as an attempt to punish political opponents. Borelli then cited a YouGov poll which found that 24% of respondents identifying as “very liberal” and 10% of those identifying as “liberal” believe it is “always” acceptable to celebrate the death of a political opponent, while only 4% of “conservatives” and 3% of “very conservatives” said the same.

“[This] is about punishing them, them being the left, them being his political opponents. That actually I think is surprising to a lot of Americans because that’s not typical what you would expect to hear from the White House after something like this,” Phillip said.

“Well let’s talk about some polling that [Trump] used to justify those comments before he made them on TV,” Borelli began. “YouGov came out with a poll three days ago talking about how each side feels about violence and support of liberal deaths. Liberals, 16% believe it is okay to feel joy when your political opponent is killed. [For] very liberals it’s 24%. Conservative, 4%, very conservatives, 3%. Justifying violence, [among] very liberal people, 25% answered yes, it’s okay and justified to issue violence against your political opponents. Liberals 17%, conservatives, 8% and very conservative, 3%. That means that six to one times more likely in respondents to this poll … That’s a problem. That’s a cancer within the movement.”

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Some on the political left have openly celebrated the death of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who died from bullet wound to the neck on Wednesday. His alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, became “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology” and lived with his transgender boyfriend Lance Twiggs, who reportedly “hates conservatives and Christians,” according to Fox News.

Many liberals, especially educators, have been fired for openly celebrating Kirk’s death since Wednesday. Michelle Bravo, a neurologist at the University of Miami, got fired for justifying Kirk’s assassination on Monday and Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) fired assistant dean Laura Sosh-Lightsy for writing on Facebook that she has “zero sympathy” for Kirk.

MSNBC gave political analyst Matthew Dowd the boot for appearing to allege that Kirk brought his own assassination onto himself, while The Washington Post also fired columnist Karen Attiah for falsely stating that Kirk made an offensive remark about black women.

The YouGov poll showed that 7% of moderates believe it is acceptable to celebrate the death of a political opponent, indicating that the more conservative a person is, the less likely they are to be openly happy about another person’s assassination.

Trump told Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese that the left is facing “a lot of problems” with radicalization and violence.